Our politicians have no one to blame but themselves

 

Congratulations to Ismail Sabri Yaakob for becoming the ninth prime minister. Now he doesn’t need to wear loud and fashionable shirts in order to stand out from the crowd.

Against all odds, he has now obtained the chance to put away the ghosts of Umno and prove to the world that he can make a difference and lead Malaysia out from the depths of gloom and despair.

But the blame game among the squabbling opposition politicians is laughable.

Some say we should have listened to Tony Pua of DAP who urged fellow MPs in the opposition to consider the offer put forward by Muhyiddin Yassin for their support to keep his Perikatan Nasional government in power.

Pua forgot the mess was created by the Pakatan Harapan government in the first place.

With a big trust deficit among warring opposition politicians and even between members of their own party or coalition, Muhyiddin’s offer was dead on arrival.

The PH government is the one who broke the promise about handing over political leadership to Anwar Ibrahim, which started the chain reaction. The broken promise was the cause, and the following events were the effect.

Could Pua guarantee that Muhyiddin would have kept his promise of carrying out reforms and continuing with the court cases against the kleptocratic bloc? And did Muhyiddin make the offer only when his back was against the wall?

In a world of their own

It’s been clear for a very long time that politicians in general operate in a different orbit from the rakyat. Politicians appear to only care for themselves while the rakyat are fighting daily battles for their livelihood in a pandemic world. The rakyat cannot use human logic to understand politicians, as they are a different breed of animal altogether.

The American political columnist Charley Reese once wrote that “Today’s politicians aren’t human beings”. He said: “I can hardly stand to be in the same room with one of them. I know why, too. They are not human. Human beings converse; politicians make speeches. It is this flat refusal to communicate more honestly that causes my revulsion”.

It’s time for our politicians to stop making speeches and start being honest brokers for the rakyat.

Some Peninsular Malaysians fed up with federal politics were looking for a messiah or a second coming from the east, in the form of Warisan leader Shafie Apdal as prime minister. Those who believe in the true Malaysia concept would support Shafie’s platform “in God we trust, unite we must”, or “We are here to build a nation, not a particular race or religion.”

Growing discontent in the east

Although Shafie’s message resonates with a lot of people, he still has to negotiate the landmines of Kuala Lumpur politics to become a prime minister candidate, even though he has spent more time as a federal minister than as state chief minister, and was once vice- president of Umno. It all boils down to numbers.

Some Sabahans blamed GPS (Sarawak’s ruling coalition) for not supporting a fellow easterner, as Sabah and Sarawak are both fighting for the same goal of getting MA63 recognised as the main instrument for getting back Sabah and Sarawak rights.

One Warisan supreme council member lamented Sabah and Sarawak should have been on the same page and that we in the east have lost a great opportunity to put one of our own at the highest level. He added that the British used a divide and rule strategy and Malayan parties are now doing the same.

Whoever holds the prime minister’s post must deal with growing discontent in East Malaysia over Sabah and Sarawak’s quest for equal partnership and more autonomy over their affairs.

More and more people in the two states are becoming knowledgeable about the Malaysia Agreement 1963 and how their rights have been trampled upon. It’s getting harder to ignore such facts as that Sabah is rich in oil resources but remains the poorest state in the nation.

The new Ismail Sabri Yaakob government will still be a minority government and the chances of it failing remain very high.

The new wayang kulit

A minority government is one where a single party with the largest number of seats is supported by another smaller party, or even individual MPs, to forge a majority. This support can take two forms. The first is a relatively informal, ad hoc arrangement, often called a “confidence and supply agreement”, whereby the supporting MPs vote for the government in confidence motions and appropriation (or supply) votes, in exchange for some of their policies being enacted. The second form of support would be a more formal inter-party agreement, such as the pact between parties but the frog culture in Malaysian politics is rampant and such arrangements would not last.

So fasten your seat belts for another “waying kulit”.

The only way out of this impasse is to form a unity government where every party is represented in one way or another. No, it’s not the rakyat who will be represented, but the party leaders who will be rewarded with ministerial posts, and key party members placed in some plum GLC positions.

The rakyat will remain as innocent bystanders and who will have to fight for their own survival in this pandemic situation, worrying when they will get their jab and from where their next meal will come.

The battle for control of the Malaysian government is not over. Will common sense prevail? Will the politicians heed the King’s advice? Your guess is as good as mine. Best of luck to the new prime minister. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.